


Rites of Passage

by Astrid_B_Caine



Series: Secret Santa X-mas exchanges [3]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Age Difference, Alpha Castiel, Alpha Castiel/Omega Dean Winchester, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Alternate Universe - Canon, Angel Wings, Angelic Grace, Castiel Helps Dean, Christmas Eve, Dean in Heat, Dean/Cas Secret Santa, Fantasy, Fluffy Ending, Freeform, Graceless Castiel, Happy Ending, Hunter Dean, M/M, Omega Dean Winchester, Podfic Welcome, Priest Castiel, Schmoop, Songfic, Young Dean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-04
Updated: 2016-12-04
Packaged: 2018-09-06 12:17:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8750524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Astrid_B_Caine/pseuds/Astrid_B_Caine
Summary: Just 18 years old, Dean has already had to deal with his heats all by himself as an Omega from a Beta family for years. He normally roams the streets at night so he won't burden his father and brother, but it's Christmas Eve and he's heard that there's a Church nearby that will help wayward Omegas. He gives it a shot and meets a young priest who could just change everything for him.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Naoe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Naoe/gifts).



> Made for the 2016 Dean/Cas Secret Santa exchange on LiveJournal at: <http://deancas-xmas.livejournal.com/> and here at AO3: <http://archiveofourown.org/collections/dcss2016/profile>. Thank you to all the mods there for creating this Christmas exchange!
> 
> This gift is for Naoe:  
>  _Wishing you an awesome new year with much fandom frolic!_
> 
> BIG thank you to my beta [Amberdreams](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Amberdreams)!

**Author’s note:** The 18 year old Dean is played by Jensen Ackles at 18, not by Brock Kelly or Dylan Everett.

_I need someone a person to talk to_  
_Someone who'd care to love_  
_Could it be you could it be you_  
_Situation gets rough then I start to panic_  
_It's not enough it's just a habit_  
_Hey kid your sick well darling this is it_  
\- **"Kiss Off" by Violent Femmes**

 

Dean had been fleeing gangs for the past two years now, ever since he presented as an Omega.

He presented in private when he was sixteen, out on a hunt by himself. Dad had sent him on a kind of rite of passage for Dean to demonstrate his independence as a Hunter. The werewolf had been easy enough to deal with, but on that same night his body changed unexpectedly, radically. Nothing in Dean’s upbringing had prepared him for his change.

Dean had been grateful he could stay away that night, huddle himself up and let his body complete the transformation before returning to the motel just outside of the small town in Missouri they’d been staying at. The woods had been warm enough on that southern winter night, and Dean had slept in far worse conditions. Only that night he hadn’t slept.  

When he came home, he stood up straight in the middle of the small motel room and informed his father exactly what had happened, how he had taken on the werewolf and that he’d gone through the change. He omitted any pain he’d endured and presented himself as a soldier, ready to fight. His father seemed taken aback at the very least, and for a moment Dean didn’t know which way he would go.

Then John took Dean into his arms, and held him protectively close, as if he were just relieved Dean had made it back alive. Dean let out the breath he’d been holding and felt relief flooding him. Dad loved him, nothing would change that.

Sam was too young to understand any of it, and Dean just beamed when Dad told his little brother that Dean was a man now.

But it was hard. Winchesters had always been Betas, they weren’t used to dealing with Omegas. On top of that, Omega males were the rarest of them all. He was just hoping Sam would present as a beta, when his time came. Only the Campbell line had had any Alphas and Omegas, and Dean was supposed to be a chip off Winchester block.

“What a load of crap,” Dean mumbled to himself, making his way through the small town tonight.

Even though Dad didn’t seem to mind, Dean cursed his own status at times like these. Dad didn’t know what Dean needed when his heat came on. Dean was certainly not going to ask him about anything so embarrassing, so Dean tended to sneak out and roam the streets or wilderness of wherever they had settled down for the night, and stayed away until it was over.

He wasn’t afraid of any Alphas on the prowl. Dean was a highly trained Hunter, and he could take on any human Alpha, even while he was enduring his heat. He did have to fight some off, but only the gangs were actually dangerous, if they teamed up against him.

And that was why he was sticking to the small alleys of the town they’d rolled into a week or two ago. Better to be out of sight, especially when it started to take his strength away.

He’d heard that there was a sympathetic church in town, that helped wayward female Omegas. Dean was aware by now how rare male Omegas were, so he held only a small hope that they wouldn’t turn him away. But as his heat was striking harshly now, knowing that he’d need a safe place before it ripped through him, he was willing to give the St. Novak’s church a shot. He didn’t relish going through this Christmas Eve in a dumpster or in the woods again, especially as this winter night was particularly nasty. He loitered in the alleys behind the church until he’d heard the cheeriness of celebrants die off, guessing the festivities had come to an end.

He heaved in the last bit of cold air he was hoping to breathe for a while, if all went well, and walked gingerly up the steps of the church, every muscle protesting.

“Damn, this place’s big,” he blurted out when he went through the vestibule into the massive church proper. Maybe it was a cathedral? Dean had never been in one, so he had no idea. 

A good many candles were still lit, making the atmosphere seem like some type of inviting fairyland compared to the streets he’d been wandering for the last few hours. Dad didn’t take them to church unless there was a funeral or there was some supernatural activity going on, neither of which happened very often.

“It certainly is a large church,” a rough and friendly voice snuck up from behind him.

Dean whirled around, ready to fight off an Alpha or monster, and felt his distressed body complaining. He was swaying on his feet, but tried to fake his way through it, until he saw who had approached him.

A young, fair skinned, black haired priest with wide, watery blue eyes put up his hands, showing Dean he’d meant no harm.

“Didn’t mean to startle you, boy,” he said gently, evenly.

“I ain’t your boy.” Dean relaxed his defensive stance and clutched his lower stomach, which was aching like a son of a bitch. “You’re not my Dad.”

“We do not usually get unaccompanied young, ah, men, such as yourself, visiting after mass.” The priest said, and Dean figured the guy was humoring him. “Especially on a family holiday like Christmas Eve. Most boys -- most young men spend the night with their families.”

Dean knew he was skinny, medium sized for his age, and that his fuzzless baby cheeks were far too girly for his job as a Hunter. He couldn’t wait until he grew as tall as Dad and could grow a beard that looked rough and manly. He hated looking so utterly underwhelming and boyish.

“I’m eighteen,” he stated with the confidence and gravitas of the seasoned Hunter he was.

The priest nodded, his sympathetic eyes still scrutinizing Dean, no doubt wondering what a boy like Dean was doing in his church.

Okay, so it was a weird situation, but he hadn’t wanted to deal with any of the congregation, and run the risk of an unattached Alpha sniffing him out, so he’d come just before the church closed. He’d hoped he could safely ride out the heat that was close to erupting and be spared the exposure to the deep winter’s night for once.

“I can see you’ve passed to adulthood,” the priest’s low voice rumbled through him, as the man reached for Dean’s cheek. His hand came away wet with sweat that Dean hadn’t even noticed.

Damned heat.

The priest showed the sheen on his hand to him, and it was plain he understood Dean’s situation.

“Yeah, well, I heard around town that you guys are, ah, friendly.” Dean had never uttered the word describing what he was out loud and he wasn’t going to start now. If the guy understood what he was, then he’d know without Dean telling him. If not, then Dean felt it was unwilling to volunteer the information.

“We’ve never had a request for help from an Omega boy before,” the father admitted, giving him another look over.

Dean thought for a moment that the priest was going to throw him out to suffer through the cold night alone.

“However, St. Novak’s is utterly indifferent to which gender presents as Omega. We help all,” The young priest added definitively and sympathetically.

Dean relaxed slightly.

The priest raised his hand to smell Dean’s sweat.

“You’re in heat, young man,” he said, empathy back in his voice. “Come.”

Dean watched in stunned silence as the priest turned to an alcove on their right, clearly expecting Dean to follow.

The man opened a hidden door at the far end and waited there. “Do you wish to lure Alphas into the church while you give off enough pheromones to light up half the street, or do you want our help in private?”

Before he could answer, Dean felt the contractions starting and moaned softly, fighting to stay upright. When the first, relatively mild one was over, he found the priest was now close by his side and supporting his arm.

“It is your choice,” the man of the cloth said.

Dean didn’t feel he had choice in pretty much anything in life, so he appreciated being given one. “Privacy’d be great.”

He was grateful the priest continued to help him into the side room. He suddenly felt dead on his feet.

“I’m Father Cas,” the priest told him.

“I’m Dean,” he said as he was being led to a comfortable couch in a small, warm, well-lit room. Maybe this was the priest’s sitting room or office.

Father Cas turned and got busy really fast. Next thing Dean knew, he was handed a hot drink. He wrapped his cold fingers around the mug and relished in the simple goodness.

Father Cas didn’t sit down next to him, where there was plenty of space. Instead he perched on the coffee table across from Dean.

“Are you not mated?” Father Cas asked, point blank, inspecting him with a worried look.

Dean could feel his heat starting to roll over him now that he’d relaxed. He doubled over as he held his breath to brace himself against the oncoming wave.

“No, breathe,” Father Cas took the mug out of his hands and put a hand on his shoulder. “Breathe, Dean,” he ordered.

Dean didn’t take orders from anyone but Dad. “Kiss off!” he barked through the contraction. But he decided it couldn’t hurt to try out the priest’s tip and pushed himself to breathe. And that’s when he smelled it.

Father’s Cas’s pheromones. They’d started to release, in response to his heat.

“You’re an Alpha!”

Dean pushed himself up, willing his legs to obey him, and lunged for the door in the little room.

Father Cas backed off and didn’t block his way.

Dean yanked the door open but then his legs started to buckle under him. He had to hang onto the door frame to keep himself from face planting on the uninviting stone tiles decorating the church floor.

Father Cas was at his side in a second and gently supported his weight, guiding him back to the soft couch.

Damn. His heat had started, and now he was in the hands of an Alpha priest who might want to try to take advantage of his vulnerability.

Dean was seeing stars by the time he felt the soft cushions under him again. He curled up in a ball and pushed the helpful priest away. “Give it your best shot, Father. I’ve fended off bigger creatures than you before.”

“I’m sure you have,” Father Cas said in a soothing, neutral voice. The priest just didn’t seem to be phased by anything Dean did or said.

When Dean finally caught his breath, he noticed the man gone back to his perch on the coffee table. The priest was inspecting him cautiously, like Dean was an alien to him.

“What? Your collar stuck in your throat?” Dean taunted. He’d rather have the actual fight over and done with so he could get through the night by himself. But he didn’t really feel like going out there again, now that his heat had started. Finding a good hiding place was hard enough when he wasn’t already in the thick of his heat. As it was, he wouldn’t get far.

He decided to put his head down until the priest made his move. Until then, he’d just rest here for a moment.

“Dean,” Father Cas’s low, comforting tones washed over him. Dean took a minute to collect himself. “I can’t help being an Alpha, any more than you can being an Omega.”

Dean hated logic, but he had to concede this one.

“Why haven’t your elders put you on suppressants?” Father Cas probed gently.

Dean didn’t know what the Father was talking about. “There’s only Dad, and he’s never mentioned suppressants.”

Father Cas looked distressed at that thought. “How can he not know how to take care of his Omega son?”

Dean just lay his head back down. He was pretty sure at this point that all the priest wanted was to talk, otherwise surely he would have made a move on Dean by now. Dean was happy to take advantage of the soft cushions on the couch. Being in the comfy little office instead of out there in the dreary cold was a win in his book.

Father Cas sighed, and Dean didn’t look up. Whatever he was thinking was his problem.

“Your kin are Betas,” the priest concluded.

Dean didn’t argue.

For a while he heard the Father shuffle about while Dean unexpectedly found himself riding bewildering new waves of well-being from having an Alpha in close proximity, especially one whose hormones were responding to him. This was something he’d never experienced before. A surprising and intense need for Father Cas washed over him. He pushed it down immediately, knowing he couldn’t – shouldn’t feel this desire for a perfect stranger.

He kept his eyes tightly closed until he noticed something being pushed into his hand. He looked up to find out they were several strips of small pills with days of the week on them.

“Dean, you do not have to go through this while you are unmated.” Solemn blue eyes were conveying the truth to him, and every bone in Dean’s body believed it. “If you’re on heat suppressants, these episodes will become manageable. Effectively no one will know, as long as they don’t look too closely,” he added, again with the ring of truth.

“Really?” Dean didn’t know what to say.

He felt another flood of emotion overtake him - intense gratitude for the gift of this knowledge. This solution would restore some of his pride and it would give him the ability to take control of his life. He felt a strange urge hug the priest, but like most of his other wishes and emotions, he suppressed it.

Father Cas nodded, launching into an explanation. “Since your father is from a Beta family, it stands to reason he wouldn’t know much about raising an Omega male, except maybe what he remembers from biology class. St. Novak’s normally only sees girls in need. Until today, that is. You’re rare, Dean, but not unheard of. These pills will suppress your heats. You could stay home, and not wander the streets in your most vulnerable state.” Father Cas’s voice was so calm and soothing, and Dean was enraptured by every word.

How he was feeling right now, using any honorific for this sweet Alpha felt wrong. He was too close to his man all of a sudden, that titles made no sense to him. This was all too personal for all that and besides, Dean didn’t hold with any protocols except his Dad’s. “Cas,” Dean said slowly. “I think you’ve just saved my life.”

The man smiled gently. “Start taking them immediately after this heat is done, and you should be fine.”

Dean was crestfallen to learn he still had to go through a heat tonight. But somehow the presence of Cas was turning things around for him, and he was already in a lot less pain than when he’d walked in the grand church door.

He knew he was overstepping all bounds by voicing his next thought. “I wish you’d knot me,” he said, before he could stop himself.

He just stared at the priest for his reaction. Would he throw him out? Would he ravage Dean? And which would Dean prefer?

No question. Dean knew damn well what he preferred. He’d never met a nice Alpha before. And the heat pushed each thought and every fiber of his body into needing to be knotted. This was the Alpha he wanted, even if it was only for tonight.

“Do you, Dean?” Cas asked cautiously. He narrowed his eyes, searching Dean’s face. “I can only act if I have your permission.”

Dean didn’t know much about priests, and even less about Alpha priests who helped wayward Omegas. “I want you to,” Dean whispered, feeling another wave coming on. “So much,” he groaned as he collapsed and felt himself become physically more receptive of the kind Alpha’s affections.

Cas was at his side now, putting an arm around him, and Dean could sense his pheromones, feeling the pain dissolve into warm happiness from the closeness of a desired Alpha.

All this was new to him. Instead of the usual episodes of lonely pain that being an Omega had brought him up till now, he was feeling the promise of what it could be.

“I would do as you ask,” Cas said, leaning in close, giving Dean the opportunity to initiate a kiss. “If you truly wish it.”

Dean wasted no time and claimed Cas’s lips for himself. He pushed his tongue through a willing mouth and reveled in the taste of a true, unmated Alpha. Dean wanted to make this sweet Alpha his tonight. He would take advantage of this opportunity and count himself very lucky to have walked into St. Novak’s church this Christmas Eve.

“Please,” Dean whispered, when he finally, reluctantly, broke the kiss. “It’s stopped hurting – it’s so much better – and it’s because of you.”

“That is how it should be if you’re comfortable with your Alpha,” Cas said, his eyes turning into blue pools shining with desire and joy. “I can knot you, Dean,” he said slowly.

“Tonight won’t suck then?” Dean asked, never having experienced a heat that had felt this good.

“Tonight would do the opposite of suck,” Cas said, smiling softly, “for as long as you feel comfortable with me. When I knot you, you should feel exceptionally good throughout.” He pulled back a bit to grab Dean’s attention with his hands on Dean’s chest. “If at any time you don’t want me to continue, you have to let me know.”

Dean couldn’t imagine wanting to stop or pull back. All he was feeling right now was an overwhelming drive to be taken by this priest. “I want you and only you,” Dean asserted. He was a boy who’d always known his mind.

Cas started to glow, while staring deeply into Dean’s eyes. “Thank you,” he said.

The small room lit up from where Cas was sitting until it reached the point that Dean had to squint hard to deal with the intensity. He couldn’t miss the huge wings unfolding like shadows behind Cas. When the light dimmed down back to the normal, Dean could still see the semi-transparent wings all around him by the friendly indoor lighting in the little office.

“What are you?” he asked, when he had his voice back.

“I’m an angel, Dean,” Cas said, his voice dropping even lower than before, more otherworldly, as if he’d grown in stature and gravitas when the light had been released.

“You’re a what?” Dean could believe in just about any sort of monster, even ones with wings. Hell, he’d seen most of them. But angels?

Father Cas – or the Angel Cas – flexed his shoulders, as if he were happy to have his wings back. “I’ve been around you and your brother for many years, making myself useful whenever I could. Your father has needed help in raising you.”

Dean thought he was hearing fairy tales, the kind his Mom used to tell him. An angel watching over him. “Nah,” he just shook his head.

“I speak the truth,” Cas said profoundly, with firm conviction. “I was not allowed to reveal myself to you, but you walked into the church tonight with such need, I could not deny you.”

Dean was aware the pain of the heat had stopped completely now. Something had changed when the light had hit the room. He pointed to his belly. “Did you do this?”

Angel Cas followed Dean’s indication and put one hand gently on Dean’s stomach. He closed his azure eyes briefly, before answering. “The activation of my Grace must’ve quieted your pain.”

“Grace?” Dean didn’t know what to say to that, though he was grateful for the goodness he was feeling, deeply inside him. He knew that one way or another, it had come from this man. Or Angel.

Cas looked down, penitently. “I had been on Earth, in the service of the Lord, for a long time. My Grace had started to fail, and I was told that only the pure love of a human who desired me above all others could restore it.”

Dean realized that he did still want Cas above all others. His desire was pure. “Can love happen that quickly?” he asked, with skepticism. Winchesters were not raised on romantic fairy tales.

“Only if the love is true,” Cas said solemnly, his hand coming up to brush Dean’s cheek affectionately.

“How come you didn’t know about me being, this,” Dean pointed awkwardly down at himself again. “If you’ve been watching out for me, all angel-like, you should know everything, right?”

Cas shook his head. “I’m not all knowing. I respect the upbringing your father is giving you. And you, my dear Dean, are very good at subterfuge.”

Dean almost blushed, and Cas smiled. “I’ll carve that notch in my belt,” Dean decided, grinning.

Dean took a moment and recognized he still knew his own mind and body. His body was very clear about what it desired. “Is it okay to still want you to knot me?”

Cas took Dean into his arms and pressed him close. Dean could feel the newly restored power vibrating off the Angel, and he decided he’d really like getting seriously up close and personal with that.

“It is so much more than okay,” Cas whispered in his ear. “I will make you feel so good, Dean.”

“Then can we stop talking already?” Dean asked, as he lay back on the couch and pulled Cas on top of him.

 

[ _the end_ ]

**Author's Note:**

> This was my first time writing the A/B/O Dynamics. I hope I did it justice.  
> Thanks for reading!  
> Happy holidays!


End file.
